One of the most important things to take into consideration in order to succeed in an online business is to choose the right web host. This decision is one that has to be done in the very beginning so you don’t have to go through the trouble of looking for a better one later, leave alone the difficulties involved in transferring a web host.

Selecting the right one is not exactly an easy task, considering the large number of web hosts offering rather similar hosting packages. Web hosting services are also becoming unbelievably competitive everyday.

Before choosing the right web host, you need to take your current as well as future website requirements into consideration.  If you are a new or small business owner with only limited requirements, you could opt for a package that offers you only what you need to start with. Otherwise, you’ll end up paying a web host for many of their services that you won’t be using. Once the volume of traffic to your website increases, your web host should also be able to upgrade you to the next level without any loopholes.

This may sound simple, but it’s a known fact that there is no single “perfect” package in web hosting that would suit all your requirements. Every website is different from one another, and so will the requirements that go with it.

The wise thing to do would be to analyze your requirements and choose a web hosting package that best suits your requirements.  Here are a few basic things you can look out for while choosing the right web host.

A few things to consider while choosing the right web host:

• Type of Website: What type of content does your website have? Is your website for business or personal purposes?  If it is a ‘fun’ website, you can find a host that offers free web hosting since it won’t have many special requirements.  A business website on the other hand, will require a commercial web host that offers services to all your special needs.  For example, if your website takes online orders, make sure your web host offers SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Certificates.

• Server Uptime: Your website is of no use unless it is accessible to users.  Ensure that your web host guarantees adequate uptime and that they have safeguards in place in case of downtime.  Most web hosts guarantee 99.99% uptime.

• Value: There are many web hosts out there trying to tempt you with their rather cheap pricing.  But there is a limit to which cheap providers can offer services. Expect to be penalized once you have exceeded parameters that they have set out in their plans. Inexpensive hosting plans are packed with hundreds of other customers on a single web server.   So you can expect performance issues as well. When choosing a web hosting provider the safest bet is to choose the ones that give good value rather than choosing cheap providers and regretting later. So price should not be a major deciding factor in your choice of a good host.  You can see prices decreasing at a high rate for certain web hosts.  This is purely due to competition and desire for customer ‘volume’ rather than any willingness to provide good services at fair rates.  If you are in for the long haul, it is always safer to choose a reliable web host who has been in the business for long, and offering quality services at a reasonable price.

• Storage & Bandwidth: If your website has a lot of content, like video files and graphic pictures, it is advisable to take a plan that gives you suitable storage and also the room to expand in future.  Similarly bandwidth depends on how much traffic you expect to visit your site.  It is important that you choose a web host that provides a sufficient amount of both these basic features if you are to avoid paying for extras requirements in future.

• Platform: What kind of platform will you require in terms of hardware and software?  If you plan to set up a website that uses programs such as PHP, Perl and CGI, then your platform should be Unix.  For programming environments such as Microsoft SQL database, ASP and Cold Fusion, a Windows NT platform would be more appropriate. Ensure your web host has the appropriate one for you.

• File Transfer: If you are paying for web hosting, a good FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program is necessary to get files transferred to your web server quickly and easily.  Many web hosting companies provide some sort of FTP interface where you can log in to your account, upload, edit and delete files.  Ensure that your web host has this feature before you make your purchase.

• Customer Support: You should settle for nothing less than excellent customer support with highly efficient staff providing adequate responses within a fairly good amount of time.  There is no saying when you might run into problems, in case of which you will need to get it rectified at the shortest possible time.  Additionally, the provider should have toll-free phone support, email assistance, tutorials and FAQ pages.

Besides all the above, it’s also wise to check out the reputation of your chosen web host and how reliable they are. Ask around to get recommendations from those who are already using this web hosting company’s services.You must be fairly certain that you are in the hands of a good web host who can cause no catastrophic damage to you, your customers, your money and the very existence of your business.

Tags: Customer Support, Platform, Right Web Host, Server Uptime, Storage & Bandwidth, Type of Website, Value, Web Hosting

This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 2:07 am and is filed under Web Hosting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.